New customers in Littleton on Fitchburg Route

[neman2]

Apparently through the state "Industrial Rail Access Program" the siding at former Very Fine (now Patriot Beverage), will be restored for shipments and a new siding will be installed for sand and gravel shipments to the Middlesex concrete plant on Route 2A.

From the Lowell Sun as reported by Chris Lisinski-
LITTLETON — Two $500,000 awards from the state will help expand operations and improve infrastructure for local businesses, the state Department of Transportation announced in a Monday press release.

The Middlesex Corporation will use one of the awards to construct new railroad track and restore the property’s siding, allowing the business to receive sand and stone shipments by rail instead of truck. As a result, approximately 12,800 truck trips will be eliminated from local roadways, state officials said.

The other award will go toward Patriot Beverage and Injection Molding Enterprises’ restoration of the former Very Fine bottling facility and expand the two companies’ manufacturing operation by facilitating delivery of materials by rail. The project will reduce 2,500 regional truck trips per year, and it will also support restoration of the bottling facility, which will employ 50 people once operational.

The awards are part of the state’s Industrial Rail Access Program. A total of about $1.8 million is being distributed in this round. — CHRIS LISINSKI

[central.vermont]

Very interesting!!
So where will the sand and stone come from?

Jon

[rmccown]

Very neat, and very close to me. Ive seen the occasional hirail truck near the Veryfine spur over the last few months, so I knew something was up.

[tonyschul]

Here is a link to the entire announcement:

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/ ... F11%2F2018" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Trinnau]

If those numbers hold that could be a busy area. The annual numbers in the article come down to about 30 cars/week at the concrete plant and 6/week at the beverage company.

[Hux]

Very interesting!!
So where will the sand and stone come from?

Jon

Not from Milford, NH. Good question though. Someone's sand pit is certainly going to get busier. Wonder if their current supplier has rail access or if they will be using another.

[jaymac]

If you access the Ayer 1939 quadrant from your topo-source of choice and go to the second "T" in the "LITTLETON" designator, you'll see a short stub running north of the WB but not as far as Rte. 2A, a bit southeast of Middle Corporation's 1 Spectacle Pond Road address. There isn't the usual mine icon, but it's a sandy area, so it may have been for a sand pit. As well as "restoration," the article discusses receiving aggregate, but no cement. Mebbe Lafarge is close enough for trucking, or mebbe it was an omission.

[rmccown]

Pondering how they are going to have the track layout there. There isnt a convenient crossover. Veryfine is on the inbound side, and Im assuming the switch for the concrete plant will be on the outbound track. There also is the old MOW siding in the weeds a bit further inbound past the old station (now the stove re-builder guy)

[rmccown]

If you access the Ayer 1939 quadrant from your topo-source of choice and go to the second "T" in the "LITTLETON" designator, you'll see a short stub running north of the WB but not as far as Rte. 2A, a bit southeast of Middle Corporation's 1 Spectacle Pond Road address. There isn't the usual mine icon, but it's a sandy area, so it may have been for a sand pit. As well as "restoration," the article discusses receiving aggregate, but no cement. Mebbe Lafarge is close enough for trucking, or mebbe it was an omission.

That looks like where the batch plant is now, across from Faba Industries. Its a huge paved equipment lot now.

[newpylong]

Pondering how they are going to have the track layout there. There isnt a convenient crossover. Veryfine is on the inbound side, and Im assuming the switch for the concrete plant will be on the outbound track. There also is the old MOW siding in the weeds a bit further inbound past the old station (now the stove re-builder guy)

Likely the same way we used to switch it, push the cars the short distance back to the Willows when done. it was always switched at night. They can use the crossover at WL to switch tracks.

[BandA]

Looks like Patriot Beverage is a subsidiary of CPF, the Pepsi bottler in Ayer. They also applied for a tax break in 2016 from the town, which seems pretty moderate in size, promising 50 jobs. I assume the tax break was given. Town says it's the last TIF they give out before creating a policy.

I think plastic bottles are usually manufactured onsite from pellets, aluminum cans are shipped in.

[GP40MC1118]

Except now there's more flexibility to switch with the double track back

[atholrail]

Has anyone noticed any activity started with these projects?

[PBMcGinnis]

Patriot Beverage has been waiting on Keolis to re-install the pieces of the switch Keolis yanked out a couple of years ago. The parts are sitting in a pile next to the switch which has been spiked straight on the main line.

The Middlesex Paving siding died when the Green Line Extension project required that the gravel be trucked in since there is no place to dump the stone in Boston or Somerville along the MBTA/Keolis tracks.

[Hux]

Any status updates on the projects?